Teilen mit:

Like this:

Hawaii consists of eight main islands of which O’ahu is the third largest and most populated one. Even though Hawaii is the 50th state of the United States of America, O’ahu didn’t feel very American to me. This is mainly linked to the fact that the majority of Hawaii’s population is Asian or has Asian ancestors. In comparison to that the native Hawaiian population is not very large (around 10%), nevertheless their culture and language is omnipresent in O’ahu. For instance, “aloha” is the most common way to greet, and “mahalo” the word used to say “thank you”.
——
Hawaii sekiz ana adadan oluşmaktadır. O’ahu bu adaların arasında en yoğun nüfusa sahiptir, ve büyüklük olarak üçüncü gelir. Hawaii Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin eyaletlerinden biridir, ama insan hiç Amerika’da gibi hissetmiyor, en azından ben hissetmedim. Bunun en büyük nedeni Hawaii’nin nüfusunun çoğunluğu Asya’dan gelmesi, veya Asya kökenli olması. Buna karşın yerli Hawaii’lıların nüfusu az (10% civarında), yinede kültürleri ve dilleri O’ahu’nun her tarafında fark ediliyor. Örneğin (ingilizceyi kullanmak yerine) selamlaşırken “aloha”, ve teşekkür ederken “mahalo” denilir.

Teilen mit:

Like this:

Bali, the “Island of Gods”, is doubtlessly the most famous island of Indonesia. As soon as you step out of the airport, its unique culture and its special flair captivates you.
Indonesia is a country with a mainly Muslim population, however more than 80 percent of the Balinese are Hindu.
Therefore, the daily life in Bali is highly influenced by Hinduism.
——-
“Tanrıların adası” Bali kuşkusuz Endonezya’nın en tanınmış adasıdır. Havaalanından dışarı adım attığın an, Bali’nin eşsiz kültürü ve enteresan havası insanı büyülüyor. Endonezya çoğunlukla Müslüman bir nüfusa sahip, ancak Bali’de yaşayan insanların yüzde 80’i Hindu.
Bu nedenle, Bali’de günlük yaşam Hinduizm inançının geleneklerine çok bağlıdır.

The “offerings” which you can see in front of every house on the sidewalk, in restaurants, on the beach, in hotels – basically everywhere in Bali – are the most visible example for Hindu culture. In tiny baskets the Balinese offer to their Gods different kinds of things, like rice, flowers, cigarettes, biscuits, … – three times a day. This is a way of showing gratitude and giving the Gods back what they have given to them.
——-
Hindu kültürünün en görünen örneği, kapı, restoran, veya otel önüne, kaldırıma yerleştirilmiş olan “tekliflerdir”. Minik sepetler içinde Bali’liler tanrılarına pirinç, çiçekler, sigara, bisküvi, … evde ne varsa, teklif ederler ve bu sepetleri günde üç kere tazelerler. Bunu yaparak tanrılara teşekkür ve şükür ederler, ve onların sayesinde sahip oldukları şeylerin birazını onlara geri verirler.

Furthermore, Bali is famous for its traditional music and dances. We had the opportunity to watch the “Kecak Dance”, also called “Monkey Dance”, which is a kind of musical theater. Around 100 men sit in a circle and tell a story with a special chant.
——-
Bali ayrıca geleneksel müziği ve dansları ile ünlüdür. Biz bir müzikal tiyatro olan “Kecak Dansını”, izledik – “Maymunlar Dansıda” deniyor bu dansa. Yaklaşık 100 erkek, bir daire oluşturup değişik sesler çıkararak bir hikaye anlatıyor. Çok enteresan bir gösteri!

One last interesting fact about Bali: Do you know what the Nyepi Day is?
It’s the day of the Balinese Hindu New Year. However, the Nyepi Day is highly different to our New Year’s celebrations. On Nyepi Day no one is allowed to speak, absolute silence is required from everyone; nobody works – so everything is closed; all daily routine stops; no lights are turned on at night; the streets are empty, as no one is allowed to step outside his/her home – tourists included. On this very special day, the Balinese try to achieve inner purity and self-reflection through meditation. Also, it is believed that evil spirits leave Bali on Nyepi Day until the next year, as they are fooled by the Balinese into thinking that nobody actually lives on Bali. We missed the Nyepi Day, but I think it’s a very interesting tradition, I’d like to experience once. I guess this is a good reason to visit Bali again. 🙂
——-
Bali hakkında son ama çok ilginç bir şey:
Nyepi gününün ne olduğunu biliyormusunuz?
Nyepi günü Bali’deki Hindu’larin yeni yıl günü. Ancak, Nyepi günü bizim yılbaşı kutlamalarıdan son derece farklıdır. Nyepi gününde konuşmak yasaktır; kimse çalışmaz, yani her yer kapalıdır; tüm günlük işler bir yana bırakılır; ışıklar tüm gün ve geçe kapalı kalır; kimse evden çıkamaz – turistler dahil – her taraf bomboşdur yani. Bu çok özel günde, Bali’liler meditasyonla meşguldurlar ve hayatları hakkinda düşünürler. Ayrıca, konuşmayarak ve dışarıya çıkmayarak, Bali halkı kötü ruhları aldattığını düşünür: kötü ruhlar Bali’ye gelir bakar, ve kimseyi görüp duyamadıkları için Bali’yi bir sonraki seneye kadar terk ederler. Çok ilginç bir gelenek değilmi?

Like this:

Gili Air, one of the tree Gili Islands, is located between Bali and Lombok. By express boat from Amed (Bali) the island can be reached within 45 minutes; from Lombok it only takes around 5 to 10 minutes.

Gili Air is not big. You can walk around the island in less than two hours; or you can rent a bike, which, however, is not as much fun as it sounds like: half of the time you will need to walk your bike as the road is way too sandy to cycle. Nevertheless, the landscape is so beautiful that even walking your bike – on a ‘heap of sand’ – is fun!
______

There are no motorized / petrol-driven vehicles on the island. But you can take the horse-drawn carriages called Cidomo, or ask the little children whether they can take you for a ride on their parents’ electronic motorcycle – haha! 🙂
______

Teilen mit:

Like this:

Sapa is a little town surrounded by very impressive mountain landscapes, and doubtlessly one of the most interesting and most beautiful places I’ve ever been to.

What makes Sapa so special are the encounters with the local people.

See all these ladies running? This is what happens when a tourist bus arrives in Sapa. They all offer you to show you their villages or ask you to stay with them for one or two nights for a fair price. (By the way, their English language skills are pretty impressive.)
This is how we met Mama Chu.

Mama Chu was very friendly, told us some interesting facts about Sapa and walked us to our hostel (as we had asked her for directions), without expecting anything back from us. As we truly enjoyed the conversation, we decided to take a 4-hour walk with her to her village the next day.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great. There was no rain, but it was very very foggy. So, we couldn’t actually enjoy the beautiful landscapes, as the visibility was highly limited.

Mama Chu

But we learned a lot about Mama Chu’s daily life, about her culture, and also about the other hill tribes:
There exist eight different hill tribes that live in and around Sapa. Interestingly, they all speak different languages, and no or only little Vietnamese. (Their children learn Vietnamese in school though.) The hill tribe peoples’ clothing looks pretty similar, yet the different colors of their hats or skirts indicate their tribal affiliations. In general, the tribe women are ‘responsible for the tourists’, while the men work on fields. Tourism is a huge source of income in Sapa – on the one hand. On the other hand, we saw many little girls selling souvenirs (probably instead of going to school), which is definitely a downside of tourism and something to think about. Also, over the years, many hill tribe women have become crafty salespersons who can have pretty aggressive sales techniques, which may in turn lead to bad experiences as a tourist.

The hill tribes live in very basic wood houses which often consist of one big, single room where every corner has a different function. For instance, in one corner there is a fireplace for cooking, in another there are mattresses for sleeping, and so on. The shower tank and the toilet are outside. First I felt bad somehow. For me all this was … let’s say ‘veeeeery basic’. But walking through the villages, I saw so much happiness. I realized once again that money and luxury doesn’t make happy, happiness is something you cannot buy!

It’s INCREDIBLE but all these places are not even one hour apart from each other (by scooter)! Mui Ne in Vietnam is a place which enchants its visitors with its spectacular nature! A must-see in Vietnam!

Like this:

Looking for a good place for breakfast in Kampot – a lovely riverside town in South Cambodia – we came across the Epic Arts Café. This is a very special restaurant: many of its staff is disabled or deaf. It was a highly interesting experience and we truly enjoyed our meals. I even learnt some Cambodian sign language.

This is definitely a café worth visiting if you’re in Kampot!

And if you would like to see some of this lovely people dancing, check out the video below. I’m sure it’ll make you happy. 😉

Like this:

Visiting the ancient city of Angkor felt like travelling back in time.

Comprising numerous impressive temples and stretching over 400 square kilometers, Angkor is believed to be the largest pre-industrial city in the world. Around thousand years ago, more than a million people might have lived here. (wikipedia.org)

Due to the heat and high humidity, we had to dismiss our idea to cycle through Angkor; and we took a tuk-tuk instead. Looking back, this was a great decision, as fellow travellers who decided to cycle only managed to see very little of this huge archeological site (which doesn’t have to be a bad thing, depending on what you want).
We had bought a Three-Day-Ticket, so we spent three days in Angkor. I can truly say that the beauty of Angkor is infinite; but getting closer to the end, I’ve started to understand what a Dutch fellow traveller, Axel, had meant with ‘temple-overdose’… 🙂